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[Recommend on!] I love to read, but I can't pick a book!
silence1186
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
Hello fellow forumites, as the thread title suggests, I'm looking for some recommendations on what to read next. I tend to consume a given series slowly at first, reading a few chapters until I get fully immersed, after which I can't put it down. Once I've finished, I then have a "cooling off" period in which I reflect on what I just read and painstakingly research what next to read. The reason for this is that once I pick up a series, I will not abandon it unless I've made a mistake in choosing genres/the author developed syphilis midway through writing and banked hard into crazy. On to specifics:
I am highly angst averse. Real life is bad enough, I don't need to read anything that will make me MORE depressed. Horror/gore is totally off the table. In my opinion, a good writer can make you think things can't possibly turn out well, and yet they still do, in a satisfying fashion.
I greatly enjoy Science Fiction/Fantasy genres. Wheel of Time (great), Song of Ice and Fire (read it without knowing anything about it, way darker than I preferred. Still, as above, I'm resolved to finish it), most stuff by David Eddings, most stuff by Terry Brooks (found later stuff less good than earliest stuff), and I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm at work and can't check my bookshelves.
While I don't mind romance (spice of life and all that), I've read a few books where it was clumsily added in just to pair up the main character, and was totally unnecessary. Characters that make actual emotional connections, that's more to taste.
I love libraries, so anything that's a little old and could easily be gotten at the library rather than the bookstore would be nice. I have some Barnes and Noble gift cards, but books add up. I do NOT own any kind of tablet or e-reader.
As a frame of reference I do also read a fair bit of action/adventure manga (still fantasy/scifi stuff), which, while I'm not really looking for recs on that, might color your book recommendations, so I thought it was worth noting.
I like order. Which is to say, a series which has sequential ordering is much more attractive than a series where the books are interchangeable or some are merely tangents.
Mmmmmmmm, scratching my head on what else to note. If anyone has any questions, feel free to note them.
Thanks in advance!
I am highly angst averse. Real life is bad enough, I don't need to read anything that will make me MORE depressed. Horror/gore is totally off the table. In my opinion, a good writer can make you think things can't possibly turn out well, and yet they still do, in a satisfying fashion.
I greatly enjoy Science Fiction/Fantasy genres. Wheel of Time (great), Song of Ice and Fire (read it without knowing anything about it, way darker than I preferred. Still, as above, I'm resolved to finish it), most stuff by David Eddings, most stuff by Terry Brooks (found later stuff less good than earliest stuff), and I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm at work and can't check my bookshelves.
While I don't mind romance (spice of life and all that), I've read a few books where it was clumsily added in just to pair up the main character, and was totally unnecessary. Characters that make actual emotional connections, that's more to taste.
I love libraries, so anything that's a little old and could easily be gotten at the library rather than the bookstore would be nice. I have some Barnes and Noble gift cards, but books add up. I do NOT own any kind of tablet or e-reader.
As a frame of reference I do also read a fair bit of action/adventure manga (still fantasy/scifi stuff), which, while I'm not really looking for recs on that, might color your book recommendations, so I thought it was worth noting.
I like order. Which is to say, a series which has sequential ordering is much more attractive than a series where the books are interchangeable or some are merely tangents.
Mmmmmmmm, scratching my head on what else to note. If anyone has any questions, feel free to note them.
Thanks in advance!
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Only downside is that some of his stuff is stand alone-ish.
Elantris
The Mistborn trilogy along with the new mistborn book Alloy of Law which takes place 300 years after the first series
Warbreaker
and last but not least The Way of Kings
I love all of those but Warbreaker and Way of Kings are my personal favorites.
As always, if you haven't, try some Neil Gaiman. My favorite work of his is Good Omen, which he cowrote with Terry Pratchett, but American Gods, Neverwhere, Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys are also really good-and can probably be found in most libraries.
Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind is really good. Sadly, the second book was a bit of drop in quality, and it's still a a continuing story, so you might be better off holding until it's finished.
I really liked Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series of books. There is a bit of gore/sex, but I would say it straddles the line between PG-13 and R. It's entirely a space opera kinda book, so it's more swashbuckling and clear good guys/bad guys than complex, real science type of read.
Wandered in here to post this. I'm not sure that A Wise Man's Fear (the second book) was so precipitous a drop as to scare you off the series, though. I still liked it quite a lot -- it's just that Name of the Wind was very, very good.
Oh yes. Read the first one, haven't rustled up the other four(?). I heard he died after completing the fifth book in a sad sort of place in his life, and the book reflected that.
Terry Pratchett is awesome, but I can't say that it's really a "series", there are lots of spinoffs and tangents, and it's difficult to read the books in order.
By far my #1 recommendation is a trilogy that isn't finished yet: The Kingkiller trilogy, by Patrick Rothfuss. The first book is The Name of the Wind and the second is The Wise Man's Fear. The third book is being edited and will probably come out in a yearish? Maybe less? Possibly more? I also enjoyed the Wheel of Time, and this book...well, it's not as sweepingly epic, but the relationships are *real*, they're not there because the main character has to have relationships, they're organic like real relationships (Not to say that WoT's weren't...but these relationships seemed even *more* real). The books aren't comedies, but the main character is supposed to be a funny guy...but when he tells a joke, it's *actually funny*. Seriously, pick up The Name of the Wind.
If you just can't go for a series that isn't finished yet, then Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn 'trilogy' was pretty good, it's pretty old, so a library should have it. There are some "this is in here because it's a staple of the fantasy genre" especially in the first book, but it's still definitely worth reading.
Obviously The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (but I assume you've read those).
I would recommend Hyperion to you, but it's a bit darker than the average book. Not *dark* but darker. They're excellent books, though.
I'd recommend any of the following, in descending order of accessibility (though not necessarily awesomeness):
-The Big "U"
-Snow Crash
-Reamde
-Cryptonomicon
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I like Tad Williams's stuff, but haven't read Memory Sorrow and Thorn, but I have read the Otherland series and the first two books of Shadowmarch series.
Are Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn significantly different from those other two series? Cause Otherland and Shadowmarch are pretty dark/bleak/whatever in theme, which the OP said he didn't want.
Seconded. His stuff is just so good.
Yeah, it wasn't a humongous drop or anything, but Name of the Wind is so good that any drop is kinda noticeable. I could also have done without the whole
Still, really good book.
Somehow I couldn't get into Otherland, I tried. I tried for 1.5 books, but I couldn't. I haven't read Shadowmarch, but yeah, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn aren't all that dark for the most part, not nearly as dark as the first book and a half of Otherland, which still wasn't all that bad (does it get darker?). It's been a long time since I read M,S,T; and I have vague recollection of the end of the third book getting darker (shortly before the ending), but other than that, I mostly remember it being fairly upbeat and stuff.
I'll toss in a couple standalone Novels.
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Of Rice and Men by Richard Galli
The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway
I will also say no to the Malazan series. I love it to death but it's bleak as all hell.
Also, Man what the hell.
Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan were a very good read. Judging from your taste, I'd say you'd enjoy the series immensely. I devoured these books.
I'll second the Dresden Files and Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. The first two books of the Dresden series are disliked by some, but I found them to be pretty good with the series ramping up to great (as far as fantasy books go, we're not talking classic literature here). It's arguably my favorite book series. His Codex Alera series is quite good as well.
If you start to like the whole Urban Fantasy thing, there are a few authors who I've come to like. Simon Green's Man with the Golden Torc is okay, as are Marc del Franco's Connor Grey books.
Tom Deitz's series that starts with Windmaster's Bane is sort of young-adultish (before there was YA), but solid.
Joel Rosenberg's Keepers of the Flame has eight books or so. They're fast reads and there's some great character interaction and classic lines, ala Eddings.
I'm seconding this recommendation. The first book (His Majesty's Dragon) is just plain fun. It's such a unique take on fantasy & "historical" fiction, like Patrick O'Brian's Master & Commander series snuggled up with dragon fantasy. As a bonus, the first book works fine and dandy as a standalone if you aren't sure if you want to commit to the full series.
You have just described Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He writes amazing fantasy. Even darkness is approached with some levity. He is a master at pulling characters and situations out of certain doom in creative ways without deus-exing.
His books are very angst filled and depressing though. His formula is to spend 90% of the book with everyone hopelessly miserable, and then somehow manage to resolve it in the last 10%.
I'll third this recommendation. And I do agree, the first couple books are weak, mostly because a lot of the best characters aren't introduced yet. Jim Butcher is a really sophisticated writer who is able to plan out a huge, consistently epic story. Most people who create a series as large as the Dresden Files make it up as they go. But it's obvious Jim Butcher knew what he was doing from the start. It's a quality series that can keep someone entertained for awhile.
I enjoy David Eddings and many books from the fantasy genre as well. A series that I think is very under read is called "A Man of His Word" by Dave Duncan. The charactes, the world, the dialogue and the magic system are all incredible (though the descriptions can be a bit wordy). It's my favorite fantasy series. The first book is called "The Magic Casement."
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My mom's favorite fantasy series, though, has got to be Mary Stewart's series The Crystal Cave (the original trilogy is the first three books under "Historical" there on her site, and two side stories are listed below them I guess? I haven't read those). It's a brilliant retelling of the Arthurian legend that follows Merlin instead of Arthur. Everyone my mom has ever lent her copies to loves the series, seriously. The books aren't insanely dense (they're not as thick as LotR or A Song of Ice and Fire is what I mean to say) but the story and characters are amazingly rich, and the books are definitely among my own fantasy favorites. No real angst that I can remember, just epic adventures and all that.
Both of these were released quite some time ago, so it shouldn't be too tough to get these from a library. Don't forget that you can always request books your library doesn't have through interlibrary loans though!
Actually, expand that to "anything written by Diana Wynne Jones". I especially like Dark Lord of Derkholm.
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I think that most people would agree that Dick's work is, at least at times, dark and depressing, but it's also profound and exceptionally deep. Blade Runner was loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (while I love the look of the film, after reading the book I couldn't help being very disappointed with the story, which is probably a common experience with a book you love).
Some people seem to think that Vonnegut is depressing, but I've laughed more at his books than any others. There is something... crusty about his work, but I love it.
Both are seminal American Sci-Fi authors that have had a huge influence on both their literary and film counterparts.
Sort of. He finished the fifth book in 1992 and died in 2001, but was certainly on record as saying that he was unhappy with how bleak the series ended and that 6 sounded like a way better number of books to have in a trilogy. It's a massively depressing ending, but honestly still pretty fantastic. There's a 6th book in the series that was written by a different author after he died, but I have not read it and can't recommend it for that reason.
After reading those five books, you should also read the two Dirk Gently books (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul).
Then, you can track down a copy of Salmon of Doubt-- a posthumous collection of short stories and the unfinished manuscript for the third Dirk Gently book -- DNA mentions that he felt the ideas he was pursuing in that book probably would have fit better as a HH2G novel.